Putting widgets on the home screen and shoving apps in a drawer would be an unforgivable change.
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Apple Disallows Previously Approved Calculator Widgets for iOS 8 Notification Center
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Putting widgets on the home screen and shoving apps in a drawer would be an unforgivable change.
But you don't have to. Neither do Android users. It gives those of us who want them an option.
Or, they want to keep it for, y'know, notifications, which is what it was designed for.
Is Yosemite different from Mavericks in this respect? I have notification center mapped to F7 on my split keyboard so it's an easy key tap away. Just go to System Prefs, Keyboard, Shorcuts, Mission Control and check the notification center box. Add a key shortcut and you're stylin'.
I'm really confused. Why did Apple allow widgets into the notification center in iOS 8 if they only want basically glorified notifications or shortcuts (of a very limited nature) up there? Why have the functionality at all if you aren't going to let developers use it?
I was seriously considering a switch to the iPhone for my next phone purchase but then I heard about that awesome launcher widget being banned. I need to be able to do things quickly on my phone and Apple still wants everything buried in an app. I thought iOS 8 was supposed to improve this?
I was seriously considering a switch to the iPhone for my next phone purchase but then I heard about that awesome launcher widget being banned. I need to be able to do things quickly on my phone and Apple still wants everything buried in an app. I thought iOS 8 was supposed to improve this?
No, but since NC is tabbed now with Notifications and Today view, it still requires a click.
I love my iPads. I've purchased 6 of them since they came on the market. I've never seen the value in iPhones. The way I use my phone, the Galaxy S4 is perfect for me. Android has really cool widgets and if the version on the iPad is any indication, Swype on Android is far superior to how it is implemented on iOS. Android does app widgets 1000x better than iOs.
I am prepared for you spikes, slings, and arrows. I forgive you.
I am prepared for you spikes, slings, and arrows. I forgive you.
Not sure I like that change. It breaks with OS X tradition of having overlays accessable with a single shortcut.
Well I'll find out when 10.10.1 is released...
I'm not sure but maybe people want to quickly use the calculator in the NC without having to leave the app they're currently in. Swiping up opens the full Calculator app that you'll then need to exit to get back to your previous app. I guess it's about convenience.
I can only imagine it's a security concern (to what degree I have no idea). Apple has been pretty good as of late with allowing apps. They were very strict at first, but that has lessened drastically. I'm usually the first to hate on Apple, but in going to wait and see if more information comes out of this before I pass judgement.
That's just not how it would work. There is infinitely more to secure against with the Dropbox widget.
It is common knowledge that from a certain point on increasing the number of options often makes a product worse by increasing complexity and overwhelming the user with too many decisions to make. That is not to say the iOS is at that junction already, but at some point adding options could make iOS worse.
And not all users are alike, some prefer to have more options, some prefer to have less. And iOS has clearly captured the part of the market that tends to have a lower appetite for more options, thus letting iOS draw level with Android on the options front, is likely making it worse for a significant part of its users.
There is no such thing as 'adding options is always bad' or 'adding options is always good'.
But why? wtf is wrong with you Apple?
This is why so many people have moved to Android.
The only thing you get in the Dropbox widget with no prior unlocking of the phone is the names of the first couple of items in the most recently added list.
I think what one should differentiate between what a widget can do while the phone is still locked and what it can do while the phone is unlocked.
It's not one developer. A bunch of developers now have had their widgets rejected for ridiculous reasons like these. Not all of them are quite this public about it.
No, that doesn't make any sense at all. Extensions are sandboxed just like apps; there are no security vulnerabilities here.
No, Apple has an entire team of "App Store Editors" who decide which apps get featured.
You can access widgets on a locked phone without authentication, limiting what can done without authentication to read-only seems like a sensible thing. Some widgets all for limited interaction, eg, the Fantastical widget (calendar app) allows you to tap on a date and see the entries for that date but doesn't allow any adding, editing or deleting of entries. That is what fits the description of 'limited interaction'.
A calculator app (in the form of a widget) does a little bit more than just giving access to stored information. Data is generated (by carrying out a calculation) not just existing information retrieved in a read-only manner. Though one could argue it is just retrieving the entries of the times table, however, a much more comprehensive times table than what people learn at school.
I don't know how things are implemented behind the scene but an app (and thus a widget) can hide functionality from the reviewers relatively easily and thus a calculator widget could do quite nefarious things if a rogue developer wanted it to. Now, apps (and thus widgets) are sandboxed but they can still interact with the outside world via a network connection. Several aspects of this require explicit permission (for accessing contacts, images, location etc.) but it is not impossible to imagine some damage that could be done with a locked phone in this way.
Some of this can be prevented by not giving widgets network access (but weather widgets certainly need it) but it could be that Apple is defining this by only allowing 'limited interaction'.
Again, all the above is reasoned speculation, I don't know whether security aspects are the reason for move by Apple.
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But extensions (in the form of widgets) don't require you to unlock the phone before using them, apps require that.
Definitely nothing to do with security, widgets are even more restricted in what they can do than normal apps.
This is pure philosophy, Apple has seen the number of widgets submitted which do more than just notify, which are now quick-swipe apps off the notification page instead of the springboard and decided, nope, that's not what we wanted, we just wanted widgets to show a quick piece of information or provide a simple share-type link to an app, and that's it; any real 'app' experience is launched separately via the home-screen.
What's sad as usual is that at every WWDC, especially in the new technologies talks, you hear the same phrase, almost word-for-word every year "we're very excited about bringing xxx to iOS/OSX and we can't wait to see what you're going to create with it". Then they do see what developers create with it and stamp on them.
I expect to see updated notification center widget guidelines rolling through my inbox at some point in the near future.
This is pure philosophy, Apple has seen the number of widgets submitted which do more than just notify, which are now quick-swipe apps off the notification page instead of the springboard and decided, nope, that's not what we wanted, we just wanted widgets to show a quick piece of information or provide a simple share-type link to an app, and that's it; any real 'app' experience is launched separately via the home-screen.
What's sad as usual is that at every WWDC, especially in the new technologies talks, you hear the same phrase, almost word-for-word every year "we're very excited about bringing xxx to iOS/OSX and we can't wait to see what you're going to create with it". Then they do see what developers create with it and stamp on them.
I expect to see updated notification center widget guidelines rolling through my inbox at some point in the near future.
Any app can still be launched from its widget, when the notification center is access from an unlocked phone, when accessed from the lock screen, they cannot launch apps.I was seriously considering a switch to the iPhone for my next phone purchase but then I heard about that awesome launcher widget being banned. I need to be able to do things quickly on my phone and Apple still wants everything buried in an app. I thought iOS 8 was supposed to improve this?
No factor
I always keep NC turned off, it is a supreme irritation. On both my Macs and my iPhone and iPad mini.
I always keep NC turned off, it is a supreme irritation. On both my Macs and my iPhone and iPad mini.
That's pretty much where it's at--Apple has a vision (one that they are still refining to some degree, as is often the case with new things) for what widgets would do in Notification Center, and they don't envision them being mini-apps of some sort, but more in the way of additional notification/information pieces that might provide some quick access or small limited functionality to something related to and within the app that provides the widget.
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A very important, meaningful, and useful addition to the discussion at hand.
I agree with keeping widgets off the home screen but I sure as hell have been wishing for an App Drawer/Launchpad for iOS for sometime now.